World Condemns North Korea

International condemnation poured down on North Korea on Monday for its announced nuclear test, as scientists tried to determine whether the underground blast was a successful nuclear explosion and diplomats conferred on how to contain the rogue regime.

The U.N. Security Council swiftly denounced the North Korean action and began work on a U.S.-sponsored resolution aimed at punishing the country for violating a moratorium on nuclear testing.

The measures advocated by the United States include an international arms embargo, a ban on all trade relating to weapons of mass destruction, a freeze on funds linked to North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs or its suspected counterfeiting of U.S. dollars, and a ban on trade in luxury goods.

The U.S. proposal also would authorize international inspection of cargo to and from North Korea to prevent the regime in Pyongyang from selling nuclear technology to other countries or armed groups.

China and Russia, which had been North Korea’s grudging protectors on the Security Council, seemed ready to join in at least some sanctions. Both nations hold veto power at the council, and China in particular would be key to any effort to enforce sanctions. Ambassadors of the five permanent council members worked on refining a resolution throughout the day, with meetings expected to continue today.

China has the greatest leverage over North Korea, its isolated and impoverished neighbor, because it supplies more than 70% of the nation’s fuel and 40% of its food, according to intelligence analysts in the region. Beijing has been resistant to economic sanctions because officials fear that punishing North Korea too harshly could push the country -- already subject to periodic famine -- over the edge, resulting in a flood of refugees into China’s neighboring Liaoning and Jilin provinces and spurring domestic instability.

U.S. intelligence officials accept the North Koreans’ claim that they set off a nuclear device, but they note that the magnitude of the explosion was small by nuclear standards -- less than a kiloton, a fraction of the power of the atomic bombs the United States dropped on Japan in World War II. The relatively small size of the explosion makes some scientists and intelligence experts believe there may have been a problem with the test or a flaw in the design of the device.

World leaders voiced their concern about the prospect of having North Korea as the latest entrant to the club of nuclear powers. They urged the North’s leader, Kim Jong Il, to give up the country’s nuclear program and return to negotiations.

Officials in Washington and other world capitals pointed to two potentially grim outcomes from North Korea’s becoming a nuclear weapons state: a nuclear arms race in East Asia and an effort by Pyongyang to export atomic weapons.

Some U.S. military officials said Monday that Japan might come to believe that its only assurance against attack from North Korea would be to build its own nuclear bomb, reviving the Cold War doctrine of mutually assured destruction, often referred to by the acronym MAD. Even before the North Korean test, Japan’s new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, had argued for a greater role for Japan’s military.

“The question is: Does Japan develop nuclear weapons?” said an Army officer with extensive experience in the Korean peninsula, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. “Do you have MAD all over Asia?

“It is very much in China’s interest and Russia’s interest to get North Korea back in the box,” the official said. “China does not want to see a nuclear Japan.”

President Bush, in his response to the North Korean announcement, focused on the danger of a spread of nuclear technology.

“Once again, North Korea has defied the will of the international community, and the international community will respond,” Bush said after speaking by phone to the leaders of China, South Korea, Russia and Japan.

“Today’s claim by North Korea serves only to raise tensions, while depriving the North Korean people of increased prosperity and better relations with the world” through talks, Bush said.

Bush criticized North Korea for passing missile technology to Syria and Iran, calling the Pyongyang regime “one of the world’s leading proliferators.” He said that if North Korea passed on nuclear know-how, it would be “a grave threat to the United States, and we would hold North Korea fully accountable [for] the consequences of such action.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a sharply worded statement Monday in which it termed North Korea’s action “brazen” even as it called for calm.

“The Chinese side strongly demands the North Korean side to abide by its pledges on denuclearization and to stop any action that would worsen the situation,” it said.

China rarely speaks bluntly in public about its neighbor. Nor does it tend to issue statements within hours of an event, as it did Monday. Both actions indicate the gravity Beijing attaches to North Korea’s announcement.

China has used its leverage with North Korea in the past. In early 2003, it reportedly turned off North Korea’s oil supply for a few days, ostensibly because of “technical problems.” That move quickly brought Pyongyang back to international negotiations it had abandoned.

Russian leaders also denounced Pyongyang’s news. In Moscow, President Vladimir V. Putin said he would coordinate actions with the United States.

“Russia definitely denounces the tests conducted by North Korea,” Putin said at a Cabinet meeting, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. “And this is not just a question of Korea itself. It is a question of the enormous damage done to the process of nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the world.”

But the U.N. ambassadors from Russia and China cautioned against abandoning diplomacy in the heat of the crisis.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin called for “cool heads” in dealing with the crisis, and Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya said his government would support a “firm, constructive but prudent reaction from the council.” He pointedly did not mention sanctions, saying that “the door to solve this issue from a diplomatic point of view is still open.”

In an emergency Security Council meeting Monday morning, U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton presented 13 elements for a resolution aimed at punishing North Korea.

He said both China and Russia seemed ready to join the rest of the council in the punitive action. “No one defended it. No one even came close to defending it,” he said of the declared nuclear test. “We’ll see how the negotiations go, but I think we’re off to an important start here,” Bolton said.

The United States has been urging other countries to join it in economic sanctions imposed last year aimed at shutting down North Korea’s alleged money laundering and counterfeiting of U.S. dollars.

Russian officials also said they could enforce sanctions if the U.N. adopted them. “We have a very small border with North Korea,” Churkin said. “I assure you there is no problem monitoring that part of the border.”

In the shadow of the North Korean crisis, the Security Council also formally nominated South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon to be the U.N.’s next secretary-general. The nomination will be passed on to the General Assembly for approval this week. Ban would take office when Kofi Annan steps down Dec. 31.

Ban held a news conference in Seoul to accept the nomination amid the flurry of discussions about Pyongyang. He said the decision was an honor for him and his country.

“This should be a moment of joy, but instead I stand here with a very heavy heart” because of the announcement of the nuclear test, he said.

Ban has said that as secretary-general, he would like to be personally involved in negotiations with North Korea, drawing on his expertise from three years of participation in international talks over the North’s nuclear program.

He said he did not consider it a conflict of interest to be involved in an issue so integral to his country’s well-being. “I would like to deal with North Korea personally, even go there, because I have experience and a deep understanding of this complex issue,” he said in a recent interview. “I know I will be able to do my job as secretary-general with impartiality.”

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maggie.farley@latimes.com

mark.magnier@latimes.com

Farley reported from the United Nations and Magnier from Beijing. Times staff writers Julian E. Barnes in Washington and David Holley in Moscow contributed to this report.